The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has reported 26 976 new COVID-19 cases that have been identified in South Africa, which brings the total number of laboratory-confirmed cases to 3 231 031.
This increase represents a 32.2% positivity rate. The majority of new cases today were recorded in Gauteng (30%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (22%).
A further 54 COVID-19 related deaths have also been reported, bringing total fatalities to 90 226.
20 436 207 tests have been conducted in both the public and private sectors.
Below are the latest statistics:
Loading…
“Of concern”
Omicron has since been detected in more than 70 countries worldwide, with the World Health Organisation labelling it “of concern”.
Scientists suspect that Omicron is more transmissible given its rapid spread though they caution it’s too early to draw definitive conclusions about the severity of the disease that it causes.
Some anecdotal accounts by doctors and researchers in South Africa suggest Omicron is mainly causing mild infections locally, but that could also be explained by high levels of previous COVID-19 infection and the fact that around 38% of the country’s adult population are now fully vaccinated.
A major real-world study released on Tuesday found Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine had been less effective at keeping people infected with the virus out of hospital since Omicron emerged. -Additional reporting by Reuters
